Add SD Storage to mobile phones without card slot with ExoDrive Case

Many modern day phones come without SD card slot which means that you are stuck with the phone's internal storage.

While 8 or 16 Gigabyte may look like much on paper, it may not last a day depending on how you are using your phone.

If you like to add music or videos to it for example, or take lots of HD photos, then you may realize that additional storage space may be beneficial, especially since some storage is automatically taken away by the operating system and pre-installed apps.

My Moto G has 8 Gigabyte of storage for instance, enough to put a couple of audiobooks on it, take some photos and install a couple of apps. Since it does not support SD cards, I cannot add more storage to it which in turn means that I have to delete contents on it regularly to make room for new content.

ExoDrive Cases offers one solution. It is a case that adds a microSD card to your phone so that you can add storage to it after all.

The developer of the case, Bhadrajee Dahanayake, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for funding.

The case ships with a SD to USB adapter that works through USB On The Go. It features a USB port that you can charge the phone through and connect to other devices so that you won't lose any functionality in this regard or need to remove the case before you can do so.

While it is definitely interesting for people who use phones without microSD card expansion ports, it can also be used on phones that support expansion ports to improve storage capacities further.

When you connect the device to a computer, both the device's internal storage and SD storage are recognized by it automatically.

Since phones come in different sizes and shapes, only the following mobile phones are supported currently:

Motorola Moto G and X

HTC One (M7) and (M8)

Google Nexus 5 and 6

LG G2

Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5

OnePlus One

If the Kickstarter raises more than $100,000 AUD (roughly $82,000 USD) , support for Apple iPhone's will also be available (iPhone 5 and 6).

The developer plans to release cases for additional phones after a successful campaign on Kickstarter.

As far as pricing is concerned, you can get one drive for a supported phone for $25 AUD currently which is a limited offer or two cases for $60 AUD which is also limited. The regular price is $45 AUD for a case in either black, grey or white.

Note that you need a compatible storage card as the drive does not ship with one. I backed the case and asked the developer to provide additional information about supported cards and capacities. Will update once I get more information.

The main advantage of the solution that I see is that you get the extra storage without losing any functionality in the process.

Summary

Article Name

ExoDrive Case adds a SD card slot to your mobile phone

Description

ExoDrive Case is a mobile phone case that adds SD Card support to mobile phones, even to those that don't support one by default.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

It’s not just the manufacturers’ fault – Google has, over the years, reduced the usability of SD cards in Android itself, to the point that no Google Nexus devices shipped with SD card slots. Google’s decision is based on the “fact” that Microsoft’s FAT32 file system is “fragile” and “prone to corruption.” If that’s the case, give us plenty of storage *and* SD card slots, and *let us decide whether we want to insert a card*, Google! Hundreds of thousands of digital cameras have shipped with SD card slots, and you don’t hear people complaining about that!

It got too much of a hassle adding & deleting files on my 8GB iPhone, so I just ordered a 1TB Seagate Wireless Plus drive. The physical dimensions seems fairly small, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem carrying it around in my backpack or a jacket pocket.

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.